Born before time
by Con n' Van
Summary: Someone new has arrived in Sunnydale. Buffy will not be able to handle the brutal honesty she so desperately needs. And the two vamps she loves are beginning to understand why they missed the past decades so much.
1. Natural facing instance

Natural facing instance - Entry 1  
  
Spike meandered through the graveyard in the chilly night air. He weaved between tombstones staring up at the dark sky carelessly while sucking the last few drags off his cigarette.  
  
'Another dreary night in Sunnydale' he thought. 'Nothing to do, no one worth eating. This town will be the bloody end of me I swear.'  
  
He continued on, without a care in the world. A few footsteps later Spike stopped dead in his tracks. Startled, he dropped his cigarette and stared directly at the figure in front of him, silently. Before him, sitting on a stone coffin, sat a young woman clad in buckles and leather.  
  
"Well hello, William" she said with a faint British accent, grinning evilly. Her eyes gleamed as though she possessed all the knowledge of the world, and they seemed to gaze straight through him.  
  
"Va.. Vanessa?" Spike stammered. "Bloody 'ell" he stood staring at her in amazement.  
  
"Been a few years hasn't it?" Vanessa replied, her eyes still glued on Spike. "Got another smoke?"  
  
Spike reached into his pocket and handed her a lighter and a pack of cigarettes and tilted his head slightly to the left, still staring and pondering.  
  
"Over a century" Spike said almost to himself.  
  
Vanessa slid a cigarette between her lips and lit it, handing Spike back his belongings.  
  
"Yes, that sounds about right" she replied, inhaling and blowing the smoke out of the side of her mouth. "Have a seat" she said, tapping the empty space beside her on the coffin.  
  
Spike slid up next to her and drew his own cig from the pack; he lit it while staring at the ground.  
  
"This is a bit odd I must say" Spike commented, with a cig in his mouth.  
  
"You seem a bit shaken" Vanessa said, smiling and touching Spike's shoulder. "I didn't mean to pop up on you like this William. I had business in Sunnydale and I figured I'd look you up."  
  
"Shaken is hardly the word. Stunned, astonished, bewildered; those are better suited." Spike replied, still staring at the ground.  
  
"Missed me that much?" Vanessa smiled playfully at him, while bending her right leg up next to her on the coffin and resting her elbow upon it.  
  
"I thought you'd died" he replied quietly.  
  
"Died? What the hell are you talking about? How on earth would I have died?"  
  
"Well" Spike began, his voice straining. "You and me, the things we did, Drucilla, all of that. I couldn't think of a reason you'd have gone without saying anything other than that you'd died".  
  
"How is Dru?" Vanessa asked.  
  
"She's gone" Spike said. "But then you already knew that, didn't you?"  
  
"I suppose I did." She replied, staring at him.  
  
He looked up and met her gaze, his eyes looked troubled and worn.  
  
"You do have a place to live, don't you?" Vanessa asked.  
  
"Oh hell, forgive me. Come along" Spike slid down off the coffin and led Vanessa through the cemetery to his crypt. He opened the door for her and motioned her inside. "Nice, itn't it?"  
  
"Lovely" Vanessa replied as she stepped in. 


	2. Daddy doesn't worship you

Daddy doesn't worship you - Entry 2  
  
"Will, pass the popcorn please" Buffy asked politely.  
  
Xander, Willow and Buffy all sat on Buffy's bed, their eyes glued on a black and white horror film playing out on the screen.  
  
"Thanks," Buffy said grabbing the bowl from Willow. "You'd think people would know not to go into a dark creaky old house on the night of a full moon"  
  
"But that's the fun of the horror film Buff" Xander replied, "Seeing stupid people die horrible gory deaths is so gratifying on a night when you should be out partying and getting drunk like all the good little teenagers.  
  
"Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm pooped from a week of studying and I can't think of anything better than a scar-a-thon, popcorn and my friends to round out the weekend." Willow smiled politely while chewing a few pieces of popcorn.  
  
"Willow's right Xander, we need a relax full weekend. No demons, no hell- mouth, no giant monster-things. Just good old fashioned Hollywood fun, what more could you ask for?"  
  
"A little pussy?" Xander pleaded, "I'm tired of hanging around a bunch of estrogen pumped drama machines all day and never getting any fucking pootang, Jesus I'm always alone in your bedroom with you and Willow, your mom doesn't seem to care. In fact your mom doesn't even seem to really exist. What's the big deal anyway? We're all a bunch of horny teenagers anyway, I'm sexy, in a quirky sarcastic kinda way. LETS GET IT ON LADIES"  
  
"Xander what the hell are you talking about?" Buffy looked at him, completely confused. Willow with the same look of amazement on her face.  
  
"Oh nevermind, I'm going home." And with the Xander stomped out of the room.  
  
"What was that all about?" Buffy asked Willow.  
  
"Who knows" she replied, "must be a guy thing". 


	3. Of sincerity and ash

Of sincerity and ash - Entry 3  
  
The wooden stake splintered and Buffy drove it into the still cold heart of her undead victim. He turned to dust and the ashes fell to the ground before her, making a tiny cloud appear as they hit the floor.  
  
Buffy was breathing hard from the struggle, and she rose to her feet and gazed around the abandoned warehouse surrounding her.  
  
'All clear' she thought.  
  
But she was wrong. She heard small, clicking footsteps against the cement floor and turned around towards the noises. She raised her stake into the air, ready for battle, as the shadow with the noisy shoes came into view.  
  
The young woman stepped into the last few rays of sunshine peering in through a broken window high in the rafters of the deserted warehouse. Suddenly Buffy realized this was no vampire.  
  
The woman wore knee high leather boots covered in buckles and pink stitches, complete with 3 inch heels. She wore a long leather jacket that hemmed at the top of her tall boots, and cut in tightly around her hips. Beneath the jacket she wore a short skirted dress covered in the same hot pink stitching as her boots, with chains around her waistline.  
  
In her hand she carried a long stick that resembled a cane, but was made of a smoky glass. The glass seemed to be filled with pink and black smoke that swirled around one another and made the glass glow in fragments.  
  
Buffy stared at the glass staff that the woman tapped against the ground as she walked closer to Buffy. She did not lower her stake as the woman kept walking, and she prepared a trademark "smart-ass" slayer comment.  
  
"Ya know canes went out of style about a decade after Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came out, you should probably hire a new stylist." Buffy said, a stern smirk on her face.  
  
"Ha" the woman replied, staring directly at Buffy, unwavering as she walked closer, a trademark grin on her face.  
  
"Stop right there. Who are you?" Buffy demanded.  
  
"That's an interesting question" the woman replied, tapping her staff as she stopped a foot away from Buffy.  
  
"What do you want?" Buffy demanded, her stake still raised up, ready for attack.  
  
"Put down your little two-by-four slayer. It will have little effect on me."  
  
"Try me" Buffy said, still putting on her little badass façade.  
  
"Buffy she's right" a voice spoke from the shadows.  
  
The woman spun around slowly, staring into the darkness.  
  
"Angelus" she said, smirking presumptuously.  
  
"Vanessa" he replied, emerging from the shadows, nodding at her with an uncharacteristic hint of a smile on his face.  
  
"You know this chick?" Buffy asked Angel, a bit surprised.  
  
"Do you know what I find interesting?" Vanessa said, circling around Buffy, looking her up and down. "Women who claim to be breaking through the molds that society has placed upon femininity, but who still buy into their own stereotypes by using the very words that demean them"  
  
Buffy looked a bit confused, but decided to mask it with another little slayer "I kick butt" comment.  
  
"If I wanted to talk to a human dictionary I'd be at the library with Giles right now" she said, looking back at Vanessa who was still circling her.  
  
"I see you slayer. I see your powers, and I see the little girl that hides behind them. He sees them too" Vanessa said cryptically, walking towards Angel and circling him as well, dragging her staff on the cement inches behind her boots as she walked slowly around him.  
  
"Angelus knows. That's why he loves you. He has spent over two centuries living in a world full of hate, and murder, and destruction. In you he finds good, he finds peace, and happiness. Do you know why?" Vanessa questioned.  
  
"No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me" Buffy said, uncomfortable with the tone of the conversation.  
  
"Because every day you see tidbits of what he has seen his entire life, and you can ignore it. You can murder demons, and then pop open a tube of candied nail-polish and manicure yourself to death. That's why he loves you. Because you can live in ignorance of the truth that has plagued him ever since the day he grew a soul."  
  
Vanessa smiled evilly at both of them and walked away slowly, tapping her staff behind her. Angel and Buffy stood watching her. Angel reminded of the crypticism and brutal honesty he had not heard in decades. Buffy finally exposed, faced with her own willingness to ignore and forget. 


End file.
